Interim railway budget 2014-15: No fare hike, 72 new trains

By Agencies |Posted 13-Feb-2014

New Delhi: Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge presented the interim rail budget for the next fiscal Wednesday with no hike in fares or freight, introducing 72 new trains and connectivity to two more northeastern states.

Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge. File pic

In what was his personal first and the last such exercise in the 15th Lok Sabha for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Kharge also promised a new tariff-setting body and said work on eastern and western freight corridors was progressing well.

The minister only read a part of his speech, for all of 14 minutes in the lower house of parliament. The full speech copy, along with the other documents that included a vote on account for the first four months of the next fiscal, was laid on the table of the house.

The minister announced that 72 new trains were being introduced, including 17 premium trains, 38 express trains, 10 passenger trains, four suburban trains and three diesel locomotive inter-city trains for medium distances.

He said despite the resource constraints, the targets for the current fiscal were fully achieved, with some 2,207 km of new lines, adding two more northeastern states will be on the country's railroad map this fiscal -- Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya.

Anticipating a healthier economic growth, the freight traffic target, he said, was also proposed higher at 1,101 million tonnes -- an increment of 49.7 million tonnes over the current year's revised target of about 1,052 million tonnes.

In terms of electrification of the network, 4,556 km railway line was completed this fiscal, against the target of 4,500 km, while the target of doubling the gauge was also surpassed with 2,227 km, against 2,000 km.

Train services will also start for Vaishno Devi shrine at Katra in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said three new rail factories in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have already been commissioned -- a wheel plant at Chhapra, a coach factory in Rae Bereli and a diesel component factory at Dankuni, respectively.

"Specially designed coaches for adverse weather conditions have been inducted for rail travel in Kashmir valley. Also corrosion-resistant and lighter wagons to carry extra pay-load and higher speed of up to 100 km per hour have been developed," he said.

As far as safety is concerned, there are no unmanned level crossings left, the minister said, even as induction-based cooking was introduced in the pantry cars to prevent fire and improved audio-video systems installed to warn road users of approaching trains.

Kharge, who has been holding the railway portfolio only for the past eight months, spoke of the role played by the railways in India's social and economic development and the lack of physical and financial resources to carry this mandate forward.

"It's time we take note of the investment and other urgent needs of the railways."

Ranked among the world's top five , the Indian railroad network ferries 23 million people and 2.65 million tonnes of goods daily from 7,083 stations on 12,000 passenger and 7,000 freight trains over more than 64,000 route km.

It is also among the largest employers with an estimated 1.4 million people on rolls.

Highlights of interim railway budget 2014-15

Following are the highlights of the Interim Railway Budget 2014-15 presented in the Lok Sabha by Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge:

- Three new factories - Rail Wheel Plant in district Chhapra, Bihar; Rail Coach Factory at Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh; and Diesel Component Factory at Dankuni, West Bengal, have become functional and commenced production during 2013-14

- Operating ratio budgeted at 89.8 percent

- Fund balances pegged at Rs.12,728 crore

- Pension outgo budgeted at Rs.27,000 crore in 2014-15 against Rs.24,000 crore in the current fiscal

- Ordinary working expenses placed at Rs.1,10,649 crore, higher by Rs.13,598 crore from the current financial year

- An independent Rail Tariff Authority to be set up to advise the government on fixing fares and freight charges

- State governments of Karnataka, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Haryana have agreed to share cost of several rail projects in their respective areas

22 Comments

sir plz provide a new train from bilaspur to ambikaur. there have no direct train.

S A Rahman25-Feb-2014

Sir:
Please start one more train from Ajmeer to Nagore Via. Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Tirupati which is very very convenient to Northern/Southern area passengers.

Ganesh Deshveni13-Feb-2014

Please provide the new train from Dadar(mumbai) to Karimnagar(TELANGANA). via Nizamabad.

RatneshbRoy13-Feb-2014

Pl provide train from Pune to Asansol. Very difficult to reach. Awaiting for long time

S.rajendrappa14-Feb-2014

Thank you for the customer friendly budget.
introducing 72 new trains is indeed a great achievement.
passenger tariff should have been enhanced.
Railways is the only department protecting the interests of common man at large.
I congratulate the railways for their yeoman service

deepak kashyap05-Mar-2014

Bus trains ko time par chalane ka kasht karein.........

manoj13-Feb-2014

please increase days of running of train no. 15903,15904,15652,15651,15622,15621,19710,19709 and extaintion of train no 15707,15708, upto Gauhati.

THIS BUDGET IS GOOD FOR COMMON MEN. A FEW LINES IN RESPECT OF RUNNING2 PAIRS OFTRAINS N0 18009-1801& 19607- 19608 I HAD TO TRAVEL FROM KOTA TO HOWRAH AND HOWRAH TO KOTA IN THE MONTH AUG.13 HERE IS MY EXPERIENCE, FROM KOTA I BOARDED IN THE COACHNO S2 OF 18010 TRAIN WAS RIGHT TIME AND I TRAVELED THE ENTIRE JOURNEY WITH SOME RATS AND THERE WERE NO CO PASSANGER . SAME STORY REPEATED AGAIN WHEN I RETD THROUGH TRAIN NO 19607. NO TTE WAS FOUND IN THE TRAIN 18010. ARE THESE TRAINS VIAIBLE?

Akash gupta 13-Feb-2014

Give us a train a.pur(c.g) to delhi and a.pur to bihar.

Mahendra Rane, pune13-Feb-2014

Please Provide us halt at Karwar Railway Station for Pune - Ernakulam Express( Train no 12520/12519) at present Pune Ernaculam Express is the only Train from Pune to Ernakulam via Panvel to Karwar, this Train does not halt at Karwar, The request was also made in previous for the same purpose,

VISHAL TALUKDAR17-Feb-2014

Plz sir give us a new train from radhikapur to sealdah

Vicky Gupta27-Mar-2014

Plz provide new train from new delhi to varanasi via ghaziabad

sourabh das13-Feb-2014

sir plz provide a new train from bilaspur to ambikaur. there have no direct train.

Prachi Gupta27-Mar-2014

plz provide superfast exp from ghaziabad to varanasi and also run shiv ganga exp & swatantrata senani exp from ghaziabad...

Rahul sinha14-Feb-2014

plzzzzzzzzzz apart from all my friends comments I have special for a very city which has 4 trains only in 2 trains record is soon bad that no one can't think about i.I m talking about RANCHI (JHARKHAND)
1.rourkela express
2.jharkhand express
one train is having a worst timmimg from Ranchi to Delhi
1. jharkhand sampark kranti
the two most amazing train are
1.Ranch Rajdhani
2.Ranchi Garib Rath
we want one more train
1.Ranchi Duro to express

S.rajendrappa14-Feb-2014

Congratulation for submitting a balanced budget.
But Karnataka should have received little more benefits.
the long running trains like Shatabdi, Jaipur super fast, Nizamuddin Trains and the Tippu super fast trains should be given a halt at Kengeri, a suburb of Bengaluru metropolitan city.
Moreover, Karavar Express passing through Mysore should be given stops at all major stations on the bengaluru- mysore junction, a long standing request of the commuters of this part.

PL GIVE US THE FACILITY OF 12941 BHAVNAGAR ASSANSOL EXP. TO HOWRAH AND FREQUENCY DAILY AS THIS TRAIN ALWAYS RUNS OVER CROWDED. HOWRAH/KOLKATA /SEALDAH BOUND MAIN LINE EXPRESS TRAINS ARE VERY SUCCESSFUL TRAINS IN BOTH WAYS i.e COMMERCIALLY AND ALSO FOR PASSENGERS